Face-Off in a Beijing Newsroom: An Insider’s Account

A photo shows the placement of a Global Times editorial criticizing an anti-censorship protest by Southern Weekly journalists (outlined in red) on page A20 of the Jan. 9 edition of the Beijing News. Unlike other Chinese newspapers, which ran the editorial with its original headline, the Beijing News published it under a news headline: “Global Times Published an Editorial About the ‘Southern Weekly Incident’”.

Fallout from a high-profile conflict over censorship between Chinese propaganda officials and journalists at Southern Weekly, one of China’s most daring newspapers, has spread to sister newspaper Beijing News, which lost a dramatic stand-off with authorities late Tuesday night over the reprinting of an editorial that was harshly critical of Southern Weekly.

The Beijing News’s publisher, Dai Zigeng, and editor-in-chief, Wang Yuechun, threatened to resign over authorities’ insistence that the paper publish an editorial from the nationalist-leaning tabloid Global Times that said supporters of Southern Weekly’s clash with censors were being actively supported by overseas human-rights activists.

Southern Weekly is owned by Guangzhou-based Southern Media Group , which is also a minority owner of the Beijing News.

Spreading discontent among Southern Media’s journalists has galvanized free-speech advocates in China, and is widely seen as a significant test of new Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s approach to concerns over media restrictions.

Below is the edited account of a journalist at the Beijing News who was in the newspaper’s offices during Tuesday night’s stand-off:

You know there are specific conditions around what we say to other media. We can’t speak freely. But last night left us feeling desperate. The way news is managed, I feel that I should be a witness – that I should let everyone know about this situation.

Here are the ins and outs of what happened:

Last night around 8 p.m., Yan Liqiang, the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, came to our office and convened a meeting in the conference room on the fourth floor. At that point, we didn’t know it had anything to do with the Global Times editorial.

Later, around 11:30 p.m., our leaders said we had to move quickly to do the final sign-off on pages. The aim was to sign off on everything by 12:30 a.m. A minute later and it would all end up a disgrace. At the time, we had no idea what they meant.

At the same time, the leaders from the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department still hadn’t left the fourth-floor meeting room. Our own top leaders were still in there meeting with them. They were negotiating over whether or not to reprint the Global Times editorial.

The propaganda department leaders’ position was very clear: This editorial must be published on the 9th. It had been determined that our newspaper and the Xiaoxiang Morning News must carry it.

At that point, the position of the Beijing News top leaders was not to reprint it, so the situation was very tense.

We heard that Mr. Dai and editor-in-chief Wang Yuechun said if the editorial was reprinted, they would resign.

A little after midnight, staff members who had gone home began to pour back into the office to see how the situation would pan out.

Yesterday we all felt happy and proud that our leaders had decided not to reprint the editorial. We thought if only we could stand firm for a couple more hours, this situation would go away.

Later we realized that the pressure really was huge. Propaganda officials were all waiting for the results. No matter how it appeared, the editorial had to be published.

When Mr. Dai and the other leaders saw that all of our journalists and editors had rushed back from home, they called us into a meeting room and asked for our opinions. Everyone said they were opposed to publishing the editorial. We discussed the worst-case scenario if we refused to publish it – maybe we wouldn’t be able to put out the paper at all. According to coworkers who understood the situation, this was a result the higher-ups [in the propaganda department] would be willing to see happen. When everyone heard this, the room fell silent. [Starts to cry]

The printers already had the edition. At 1:30 a.m., the printers were told to stop printing.

[Sobbing] I don’t think we compromised. We did everything we can do.

As far as the question of Mr. Dai resigning, I personally can’t represent him, but when he and Ms. Wang were discussing things with us they mentioned resignation, and according to one of the top leaders who was in meetings, Mr. Dai and Ms. Wang verbally threatened to resign in front of the propaganda authorities. What changes will take place with our newspaper’s management in the end, right now nobody knows.

We were standing outside the meeting room the whole time and could see the gloom on our leaders’ faces. The atmosphere was extremely tense.

The reason we didn’t want to reprint the Global Times editorial is that this so-called commentary was callous and illogical. It also didn’t fit with Beijing News’s style.

Originally, the Southern Weekly business didn’t have much to do with our newspaper. It’ s only because we refused to reprint the editorial about Southern Weekly that we’re forced to confront this danger. We really don’t understand. It’s not enough that the Beijing News is subject to daily censorship notices and inspections? It now appears they can kill a news organization as easily as they can kill an ant.

Asked to comment on the Beijing News editor’s account, the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department told China Real Time to direct all questions to the news office of the Beijing municipal government. Contacted by phone, the news office said that it had checked with “relevant departments” and that no such situation had occurred. “Dai Zigeng is working normally. He worked a night shift yesterday so is resting at home today,” a news office employee said by phone. Neither Dai Zigeng nor Wang Yuechun could be reached.

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